AdblockPlus has now become a scam plug-in that is holding advertisers to ransom in order to make big profits. There used to be a setting in older versions of Adblock that allowed you to select whether you wanted to keep viewing 'unobtrusive' ads or not, but that setting has also now gone. Basically it seems if you throw enough money at the developers of Adblock they will show whatever advert you want.

I thought I was going nuts when I first saw Google ad-sense ads about a week ago. I haven't seen adverts on my home internet connection for over 10 years. I thought something screwy has gone on with my filter list. It turns out it had, although it wasn't my doing.

It seems like it's time for a new adblocking extension to step in where AdblockPlus has now firmly dropped the ball. (Preferably one that is open source and can't sell out and that maybe uses a similar set of filter lists.)

Is anyone aware of anything currently that can block Google ads?

Before anyone answers, let me get a few things out of the way. Firstly, I have always disabled Adblocking software on on the few sites I am sympathetic to. Google isn't one of these.

Second I know there are guys who vehemently support serving all web users adverts, whether they want to view them or not. I am certain you have your own well worked out rational for this, although if you told me this I would probably think you were slightly crazy - and since I pay a premium for my internet connection, I should be able to view, or not view whatever I wish. In any case, this post is not for you if you do feel like this. Please don't respond if this is what you want to say.

3rdly is there any way of manually editing the AdblockPlus white list, or is this now just officially a dead (or at least slowly dying) duck?

It sucks when something you have trusted for so long turns around and bites you in the butt. But sh t happens I guess.

Are you sure the setting is gone? It still shows on my firefox with ABP 2.2.4.

There are several adblock plus clones (basically copy&paste of the code) around that were released in response when ABP added that option but I don't know if they can be trusted since copy&pasting somebody else's work is already pretty unethical to start with.

Are you sure the setting is gone? It still shows on my firefox with ABP 2.2.4.

There are several adblock plus clones (basically copy&paste of the code) around that were released in response when ABP added that option but I don't know if they can be trusted since copy&pasting somebody else's work is already pretty unethical to start with.

Actually, Enhanced Protected Mode in the IE11 Preview makes for a slicker ABP alternative (at least for IE). It even blocks ads that ABP won't. (ABP, for example, does NOT block ads in the "guest-default" layout - even in Firefox or Chrome - IE11 EPM heads them off at the pass. It even blocks - by default - Neowin's connection to Twitter. Finally, EPM actually has teeth.)

Adblock Plus is an open-source project addressing the problem of annoying and intrusive online advertising by putting users in control. The extension allows defining filters that determine what a website is permitted to load, as well as provide a way to collapse unwanted sections of a web page (element hiding). People who don't have the knowledge or the time to create their own filters can choose from over fifty existing subscriptions that have been prepared by members of the Adblock Plus community and are constantly being updated.

Actually, Enhanced Protected Mode in the IE11 Preview makes for a slicker ABP alternative (at least for IE). It even blocks ads that ABP won't. (ABP, for example, does NOT block ads in the "guest-default" layout - even in Firefox or Chrome - IE11 EPM heads them off at the pass. It even blocks - by default - Neowin's connection to Twitter. Finally, EPM actually has teeth.)

Just because it blocks some ads ABP doesn't block it still doesn't change the fact that ABP blocks far more ads since it's element blocking rather than simple URL blocking. If I wanted URL blocking I'd just install privoxy or any other ad-blocker from more than a decade ago.

Actually, Enhanced Protected Mode in the IE11 Preview makes for a slicker ABP alternative (at least for IE). It even blocks ads that ABP won't. (ABP, for example, does NOT block ads in the "guest-default" layout - even in Firefox or Chrome - IE11 EPM heads them off at the pass. It even blocks - by default - Neowin's connection to Twitter. Finally, EPM actually has teeth.)

Unless I missed something drastically different in IE11 (and I don't see any changes announced in the IE blog), EPM has absolutely nothing to do with blocking ads. EPM is a form of integrity known as "AppContainer", a level below "Low". I'm willing to bet what you're experiencing is being caused by something else such as TPLs. A big giveaway of this is your mention of blocking Twitter.